My Summer Love~ A Niall Horan Love Story

Chapter 26~ Runaway

"Runaway" by Linkin Park

"I wanna run away; never say goodbye. I wanna know the truth instead of wondering why."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My head whipped around, desperately trying to find a place to go before Louis and Niall came looking for me. Niall's flat? No, that would be the first place they would look. Louis' flat? No, Harry was probably there looking for Louis still. I looked a little farther to my left and saw the staircase that led to the roof. That was my ticket.

I bolted up the stairs, taking two at a time and quickly got to the door, busting through it out onto the roof. For once, to my surprise, it wasn't raining outside. I quietly closed the door behind me and took a deep breath of the clean, cool air to clear my mind. What the hell was I supposed to do?

I didn't want to scare Niall off by telling him how I really felt. I mean, come on now, it hadn't even been two whole days since we'd found each other again. An aching pain shot through my head and I winced. Of course I had a headache right when I was trying to figure things out for myself.

I sighed shakily before continuing to walk farther out onto the roof, my bare feet padding across the cold concrete. As I got over to the edge of the swimming pool, I took the guitar off over my head and sat it carefully down on the ground before sitting down next to it on the edge of the pool. I crossed my legs and looked over the edge of the pool and saw my own reflection in the unnaturally blue water. I laughed unhumorously and shook my head at myself when the song from my favourite Disney movie "Mulan" popped into my head. "Look at me, I will never pass for a perfect bride, or a perfect daughter. Can it be, I'm not meant to play this part?" I sang while continuing to look at my own reflection.

"Now I see that if I were truly to be myself, I would break my family's heart." I stood up and looked down at the blue water, staring into my own green eyes. "Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me? Why is my reflection someone I don't know? Somehow I cannot hide who I am, though I've tried. When will my reflection show who I am inside?" I looked up at the sky and saw the dark clouds forming overhead as the first few rain drops fell as I held out the note.

My gaze trailed back down to the water and I could barely see myself because of the slowly-falling rain. "When will my reflection show who I am inside?" I sang softly.

There was a huge crash of thunder that brought me out of my trance. The rain was steadily getting faster and harder, so I quickly grabbed the guitar and ran over to the awning over the little garden area. I sighed and sat down on one of the chairs under the awning, taking the guitar in my hands.

I patted my pockets, looking for my phone when I realized I'd left it in the recording studio. Man, I couldn't ever keep up with that thing. My eyebrows furrowed when I felt something in my pocket. I shoved my hand in my pocket and pulled out two folded up pieces of paper along with a pencil.

"Where the hell did this come from?" I asked myself under my breath. I sat the guitar down beside me and slowly unfolded the pieces of paper. I looked at the one on top and read it out loud slowly.

"Will you be my girlfriend? Yes or no? Love, Niall," it read. My eyebrows furrowed. I could tell that it hadn't been written recently. The paper had been worn with age and the hand writing was sloppy like a child's.

I put the first paper aside and moved on to the second one. The paper was lined with Niall's fancy-looking handwriting; the same handwriting as on all of his lyric sheets. That one was definitely more recent. I began to read over the fancy handwriting.

Aine-

I can only hope that you'll find this before you change your clothes. Right now I'm fixing to go make some breakfast with Liam, but I wanted to write this to you while I had time to.

So he'd put these things in my pocket while I was still asleep that morning. I guess that made sense.

You're probably wondering what this other paper is.

'You got that right,' I thought to myself.

Well, I wrote it when we were eleven, only a few months before you left for some unknown reason. I always wanted to give it to you, but I never actually built up the courage to do so. I've kept it over all these years because I didn't ever want to forget about you... and now that I've found you again, I'm really glad that I did keep it.

So I guess just, um... let me know.

-Niall <3 xoxo

I sat the note down on the chair beside me and put my head in my hands. I knew that any normal person would be running to go find Niall, but I guess I wasn't normal because I only wanted to do one thing. I picked up the guitar from beside me and put it in my lap to get started on what I did best. Writing.

I flipped the piece of paper over and grabbed the pencil to start with the lyrics. Writing was always how I got out all of my emotions. So that's what I was doing... and the lyrics just seemed to be pouring out onto the paper. "Baby I, I wanna know what you think when you're alone. Is it me, yeah? Are you thinking of me, yeah?" I wrote down on the piece of paper as the rain continued to pour down. "We've been friends now for a while. Wanna know that when you smile; it is me, yeah? Are you thinking of me, yeah?"

I put the pencil down and put my hands on the guitar. The capo was already on the third fret, so I just went with it and played a C chord. I wrote that down so I would remember it and started plucking around in that same key.

That is of course until I heard a voice. "Anna?!" the voice shouted from across the roof. I quickly and discreetly shoved the papers and pencil back into my pocket before looking around to decipher where the sound had come from. I knew it wasn't Niall because he called me Aine and I also knew it wasn't Louis because he called me Annie. Zayn; it had to be Zayn, right?

Before I could analyze it any longer, a figure came running over to stand under the awning beside me. He shook some of the water out from his shaggy curls and met his emerald green eyes with mine that were of the same colour. "Anna, what are you doing out here? This rain is freezing!" Harry shouted at me, folding his arms over his torso which wasn't clothed in pyjamas anymore like I still was.

"I-... I," I stuttered out before my chattering teeth interrupted me from going on.

"Anna, you're shivering," Harry told me, walking over to pull me into a warm bear hug. He pulled the guitar out of my lap and did just that; pulled me into a hug to try and warm me up.

I had never seen THIS side of Harry before. The weird thing was that I'd never planned on seeing it either. Louis had said that I would have to work at it, but I was barely trying at all... Maybe it was like the human factor or something; the compassion from somewhere deep inside him all of a sudden coming out. But whatever it was, it was nice. HE was nice.

He was right too; I was shivering uncontrollably. I hadn't realized how cold it had actually gotten since it had begun raining outside. I crossed my arms and buried my face into his chest because I had realized that I couldn't even feel my nose. How long had I been out there for? "Anna, what the hell are you doing out here?" Harry said into my hair, tightening his arms around me.

I tried to reply to him, but once again failed when I couldn't make my own teeth quit chattering against each other. "Oh, what am I thinking?" Harry asked while pulling away, leaving me to fend for myself against the cold, brutal wind. All of a sudden, I felt a pair of arms slip around me and pick me up. I didn't bother finding out who it was, and I didn't bother protesting either. All that mattered to me was that I was okay. Everything was going to be okay.

I heard the footsteps of whoever was carrying me echo along with the quick-falling raindrops while I closed my eyes and snuggled up into the person's firm, warm chest.

But the shivering still didn't cease.

"I'm so sorry, Aine," I heard the rumbling voice say. I still had yet to tell who it was. Whether it was the rain or myself, I was disoriented out of my mind. I opened my eyes and everything was out of focus. I couldn't tell right from wrong...

And everything went black.